Country’s first craft cannabis co-operative ready to take root in Taber

Country’s first craft cannabis co-operative ready to take root in Taber

Grasslands Taber Cooperative CEO Lindsay Blackett, a former Alberta PC government cabinet minister will start the country’s first cannabis cooperative ready to take root in Taber on Thursday, November 14, 2019. Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia As grain elevators tumble to time, a terminal accepting cannabis shipments could soon be a replacement on the southern Alberta prairie. That’s the goal of a group behind what they say is the country’s first craft cannabis collective, one that’ll host growers, processors, researchers and other links in the pot production and supply chain on 25 hectares of land in Taber. “It’s like a concept of rural Alberta, raising a barn,” said Grasslands Taber Collaborative CEO Lindsay Blackett, a former Alberta PC government cabinet minister. “It’ll operate like a co-operative. People can do it without it costing an arm and a leg, they can get their feedstock and they don’t have to leave the grounds.” The core of the $70-million to $100-million concept, said Blackett, is to attract 20 craft cannabis micro-cultivators who’ll sell their harvest to 10 processors in the same complex, turning out products ranging from recreational pot edibles to non-psychoactive hemp food. Targeting higher quality, said Blackett, is a key to undermining the black market and…